So this summer has been a roller coaster for me. I had really wonderful experiences. Leading worship at General Assembly, going to different UU camps, spending quality time with my friends and family from home, getting to preach. And I had really difficult experiences. I had to navigate conflict with my family, I dealt with some relationship drama, and my grandfather passed away. One of the ways I keep myself together during these ups and downs is relying on the love of my community.
I’m not always great at articulating my theology, but one thing I know to be true for me is that I believe in the power of community. I believe being in community matters. And I feel the presence of the divine when I am in community with others.
As I mentioned over this summer I got to lead worship for the 2014 UUA General Assembly along with the leadership team from The Sanctuary Boston. We brought The Sanctuary’s special blend of music, prayer, and inspiration to a crowd of 5000 people in Providence Rhode Island. During the worship we had the crowd singing, and dancing, laughing and crying, cheering and listening. I have never been apart of a service with so much energy. I felt deeply connected to the people around me and to the divine as we worshiped together.
The point of our service was to pump everyone up before going to the WaterFire Witness event scheduled for that evening. We decided that to do that, we had to fill people up with the love of god and community. After a long week of GA, and in recognizing that people are coming to this GA with baggage and grief, with fears and shortcomings, we wanted them to know that the love in this community was theirs regardless of who they were. We sang a song called “Whole” as the culmination of the service. Not only has it become my go to singing in the shower song, but it has been my mantra all summer since I learned it. This is the chorus:
In my brokenness, Your love binds me up,
In my brokenness, I find I’m enough,
In you I am whole, In you I am whole.
I think the you/your is intentionally vague. To me it’s a prayer to our community and the divine love that flows through it and through me. I’ve been carrying these lines on my heart all summer and even though things have been hard, it’s continued to remind me that I am loved and I am enough.